The present invention pertains generally to carpentry measurement devices, more specifically to measurement of interior frame casing stock sections used in window frames and door frames, and in particular allows improved speed and accuracy of such measurement in cases where the stock has mitered ends, typically with 45 degree angles of the end edge of each stock section.
For measurement and cutting of framing material for a window or door of given desired dimensions, where each section of frame casing is to have mitered ends, so that each finished framing section has a longer outer length and a shorter inner length, the inner shorter length of each section of frame casing will equal a given desired dimension of the window or door opening. So there is a need to accurately and quickly measure the inner shorter length of a piece of frame casing stock, to make it equal to the corresponding desired window or door aperture dimension.
Current carpentry measurement devices known to applicant do not allow a workman to quickly attach an end of a tape measure at the end point of the inner length of a frame casing stock section, at a mitered end of the section. So after cutting a mitered end, the workman needs to manually align the tape measure end at that inner length end point, then stretch the tape measure out to the desired inner framing section length, lock the tape measure, and mark the other end, in order to measure the needed inner length of the section. This procedure is slow and causes inaccuracy particularly in measuring long pieces of stock.
The present invention deals with these problems by the general approach of providing a hooking member, pivotally attached to one end of the tape measure, with the hooking member having a hook at the outer end which the workman readily hooks to the outer point of the typically 45 degree mitered end which has previously been cut by the workman in one end of a framing casing stock section, and with the hooking member having a length equal to the length of the mitered end of the stock section, so that the end of the tape measure is automatically aligned at the end point of the inner length of the framing stock section. The hooking member may be adjustable to various fixed lengths for use with framing stock of varying size, or of fixed length for use with stock of a particular size.
It is not the intent of this application, by stating that certain embodiments of the present invention are suited to certain purposes or to dealing with certain problems, to necessarily limit the scope of the invention to only embodiments which are useful for said purposes or problems; it is instead the intent that the scope of the invention be determined by the claims as more fully stated below.